The present invention relates generally to stowable support systems and, more particularly, to a stowable support system adapted for use in supporting an electronic device in a vehicle.
Stowable support systems for retractably positioning a supporting surface or other object near a seated or standing person are used in various different environments, and are often installed in automobiles, aircraft, and other vehicles. Typically, such systems include a moveable arm having a proximal end connected to a base structure and a distal end connected to a deployable object. In aircraft and other vehicles, the proximal end of the arm may be connected to the floor of the vehicle or to a portion of a passenger seat. The arm is typically adapted for movement between a stowed position and a deployed position to facilitate access to, and storage of, the deployable object.
For example, commercial aircraft commonly provide stowable tray tables for each passenger. The tray table for a particular passenger typically is connected by an arm or arms to the seat in front of the passenger. Another example of a stowable system is a personal entertainment device, such as a DVD player with an arm that allows the device to be moved between a deployed position and a stowed position in an aircraft.
A common design consideration for stowable support systems is securely maintaining a supported object in a deployed position. For example, in some systems, the distal end of the support arm is pivotally connected to an object so that the object may be rotated through a plurality of angular positions relative to the arm. In these systems, it is usually desired that the object be deployed in a particular pivotal position relative to the support arm. Some such systems do not securely maintain the supported object in the deployed position. This problem is often addressed by providing various locks, tightening devices and other mechanisms for securely maintaining the object in the desired position. These designs normally require the user to manually operate the tightening/locking mechanism to secure the support arm in a deployed state and/or to stow the support arm and the object that it supports. These manually operated mechanisms complicate the operation of stowable support systems and increase costs associated with manufacture of these systems.
In addition, known stowable support systems have a number of disadvantages related to the problem of deploying and stowing electronic devices such as personal entertainment systems. Many stowable support systems have trays or supporting surfaces that are significantly larger than the personal entertainment device that they are to support. The systems are thus unnecessarily bulky. Still other designs employ a personal entertainment device permanently or semi-permanently secured to an end of the support arm. These xe2x80x9chard-mountedxe2x80x9d designs are inflexible in that the system cannot be easily used to support objects other than the integrated device. In addition, a hard-mounted arrangement significantly complicates and increases costs associated with upgrading, repairing or replacing the device.
Accordingly, the present invention provides an improved stowable support system, including an arm with a follower assembly having a surface portion of a first contour, and an attachment member pivotal through a plurality of angular positions relative to the arm. The attachment member includes a surface portion of a second contour that is cooperative to the first contour. At least one of the plurality of angular positions defines a rest position in which the surface portion of the attachment member is in mating contact with the surface portion of the follower assembly. The follower assembly and attachment member are biased toward engagement with each other, and either the follower assembly or attachment member (or both) is adapted to be resiliently deformed when the attachment member is pivoted out of the rest position, to maintain the system in the rest position.
The stowable support system may further include a support platform secured to the attachment member and adapted to support an object such as an electronic entertainment device. In addition, the follower assembly may take the form of a follower urged by a spring into contact with the exterior surface of the attachment member. The stowable support assembly may further include a second attachment member secured to an opposite end of the arm and pivotable through a plurality of angular positions relative to the arm. The second attachment member also may have a surface portion or portions having a contour cooperative to the contour of the follower assembly""s surface portion.
When the system is provided with two attachment members, the follower assembly may be adapted to contact both attachment members, and may take the form of two followers with an interposed spring that urges the followers into contact with the opposed attachment members. The followers thus may be urged into contact with the attachment members to maintain the attachment members in predefined rest positions. The predefined rest positions occur when the followers are in mating contact with surface portions provided on the attachment members.